


Rotted

by BunniesofDoom



Series: shattered mirrors [1]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Body Horror, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Major Character Injury, Medical Inaccuracies, Spoilers: Volume 8 (RWBY), Volume 8 (RWBY), Whump, do not take medical advice from fanfic, sorry ruby, you dont deserve this at all
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:41:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28485540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BunniesofDoom/pseuds/BunniesofDoom
Summary: "I might now have been able to hack the Winter Maiden, but I can still do this."
Relationships: Blake Belladonna & Ruby Rose, Blake Belladonna & Weiss Schnee, Ruby Rose & Weiss Schnee
Series: shattered mirrors [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2088174
Comments: 3
Kudos: 42





	Rotted

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry idk what this is, just the end result of me thinking too hard about Cinder's grimm arm and an idea that wouldn't leave me alone. Content warning for mentions of blood, body horror, and amputation (not described in detail, but it's mentioned and it happens). I'm going to flee now.
> 
> Enjoy!

They should have never split up.

Of course the attack had come when they’d separated to look for the generator. Nothing good ever happened when they were apart. Really, Ruby should know better by now.

The Schnee manor is way too large, Ruby decides as she skids around a corner and starts sprinting down another overly long, winding hallway. She doesn’t know exactly where the others are, but she knows that she needs to get to them quickly. Unfortunately, the part of the mansion she had been exploring is built like a maze, and she can’t risk using her semblance to go faster when she’s not sure where she’ll end up.

So instead, she’s stuck running down darkened corridors as fast as she can without running into the walls, hoping that every turn that she makes is leading her in the right direction. She allows herself to feel a tiny bit of relief when she spots light ahead and the hallway around her widens, and she finds herself in a larger room with an enormous marble statue in the middle. It’s impossible to make out the exact shape in the darkness, but in the faint light from the skylights Ruby can make out some of the lines and curves of the figure. 

Finally, something that looks familiar. She remembers passing through here earlier, so she must be getting close, right? Hastily skidding to a stop in front of the statue, Ruby glances around the room, trying to determine which path to take. There’s a door to the left of where she’s standing that she thinks might point her in the right direction, should she—

Bam! Just as she’s about to take off again, something heavy slams into her chest, knocking her backwards—straight into the base of the statue. Her aura remains intact, but the impact draws a startled gasp out of her before the air is driven from her lungs. The familiar stench of the Grimm, like rotted food and old blood, reaches her nose, and Ruby looks up to get a better look at the creature sitting on top of her.

She kicks herself for not paying better attention to her surroundings—it’s dark in here, with plenty of places for things to lurk without being seen, but Ruby knows better than to let herself get taken down this easily. And Crescent Rose was flung out of her hands when she fell. She’s going to need her weapon if she wants to have a chance to take this thing down.

This Grimm is a strange one, too. There’s something off about its body, wrong, and it has a pair of twisted wings jutting out of its back. And—it doesn’t have any eyes.

For some reason, that’s the part that sends a shiver down Ruby’s spine, the complete absence of the usual burning red eyes on this massive Grimm’s face. At least, until the Grimm opens its mouth.

“Found,” it croaks painfully, and Ruby feels her mouth fall open in shock, stunned into silence. She barely reacts when the creature steps backward, removing its massive paws from her chest, except to take a few deep breaths now that the crushing weight is gone.

Just as she finally regains her bearings and goes to sit up, the Grimm lunges forward and sinks its teeth into her right shoulder. This time, it manages to break through her aura. Ruby yelps in pain. “Let me go!” she shouts, attempting to wrench herself free.

“No.” The croaking growl is muffled this time, but Ruby still hears it loud and clear. A Grimm that can talk? And not just talk, but respond to what she's saying? How is that even possible—

Ruby’s train of thought is violently disrupted when the Grim lifts her off the ground and begins to shake its head rapidly, tossing her around like a rag doll. She loses track of time, too dazed and disoriented to try to free herself. 

“Now, now,” a vaguely familiar voice drawls from the shadows. “You’re not supposed to play with your prey.” The shaking stops abruptly and Ruby falls unceremoniously to the floor, every part of her body aching. Hazily, she gazes up at the face of Dr. Arthur Watts.

What is he doing here?

Watts huffs. “I did say to leave her alive. We want her relatively intact for what happens next.” He turns to the Grimm. “Now, make sure she doesn’t squirm too much. I’d hate for this to all go to waste.”

Jerking its head in—is that a nod? —the Grimm steps forward, placing a massive paw on Ruby’s chest. Watts crouches down next to her. Ruby tries to struggle away, to scream for help, but it’s no use. She can barely breathe, and the weight on top of her has her pinned in place. There’s nothing she can do.

The scientist just smirks when Ruby glares at him, vision fuzzy from the pain. “I might have been unable to hack the Winter Maiden,” he says, tossing something on the ground. The world around her looks blurry, but she knows Penny’s sword when she sees it. Her heart tightens with fear for her friend. “But,” he announces, pulling out a syringe from the small bag he’s carrying. “I can still do this.”

Ruby’s world shatters as he grabs her wrist and injects the inky black fluid into her left forearm. He releases her with a satisfied smirk, and she immediately yanks her arm to her side as the spot where the needle was erupts with a burning pain. She barely even notices when the weight of the Grimm vanishes, just curls into a ball to try to endure the agonizing pain spreading along her arm.

“I do wish I could stick around to observe the effects,” Watts muses. Ruby can barely hear him over the ringing in her ears. “But I’m afraid I do have to go. Come, now.” And between one blink and the next, the scientist and the Grimm are gone.

Ruby lays there for a second, taking stock of the situation. She hurts all over, and the burning ache in her left arm is only increasing. All she wants to do is let herself collapse on the floor and fall unconscious. But she can’t. Somewhere nearby, her friends are in danger. Ruby can hear the faint sounds of explosions nearby. 

So instead she rips a piece of cloth from her cloak and wraps it around her wrist like a bandage, before gritting her teeth and forcing herself to her feet. She lurches forwards a few steps, retrieving Crescent Rose and reattaching her scythe to her ammo belt. Then, forcing herself to square her shoulders and lift her chin, she starts to make her way to the door with unsteady steps.

Blake is the one to find her a few minutes later, limping along another endless hallway and leaning heavily against the wall for support. She gets to Ruby’s side just as her friend collapses, barely managing to catch her before her head hits the ground. “Ruby! What happened? Are you okay?”

“My arm,” mumbles the younger girl, sounding dazed. “What’s happening to me?”

They’ve been in a lot of tough situations before, but Blake has never seen Ruby this bad off before. She’s absolutely covered in bruises, and her face is so pale that she looks half-dead. Her head lolls limply against Blake’s chest when she hastily scoops the younger girl into a bridal carry. “Ruby, who attacked you?”

Ruby ignores the question. “What happened to—Penny and the others.” She pauses to gasp for air. “Are you guys okay?”

“Penny got attacked by Cinder, but she fought her off. The rest of us are all okay.” Blake takes a deep breath, trying her best to be patient. “Ruby, I need you to tell me what happened to you, so we can help. Please.”

As they pass through the front hallway, Ruby mumbles something about a talking Grimm and Watts and needles. She sounds half-delirious with pain. Around them, the room is scattered with what looks like half-finished ice sculptures left over from Penny’s battle with Cinder.

They run into Weiss on the stairs, almost literally. The other girl pales further when she sees the state that Ruby is in. “Get Klein!” Blake orders. “Quickly!”

Nodding, Weiss scrambles off. Blake makes her way down the hallway towards Weiss’ room, and carefully deposits Ruby on the bed next to Nora. Her friend groans softly, but otherwise doesn’t respond. Remembering their first aid classes from Beacon, Blake carefully begins triaging Ruby for injuries.

Her touch seems to rouse the other girl slightly. “My arm,” she moans again. Blake notices a strip of red cloth tied around her left wrist like a bandage. Biting her lip, she turns the arm over to get a better look, forcing herself to ignore Ruby’s pained grunt. 

Just as Weiss enters the room with Klein in tow, Blake gasps loudly. The others rush to her side, letting out their own exclamations of surprise and horror when they see what she’s looking at.

Ruby’s entire forearm has turned pitch black. The texture of her skin looks off, wrong somehow, and her nails have started to lengthen into claws. Like a Grimm.

Klein is the first one to jump into action while Weiss and Blake stand frozen in horror. He borrows a belt to make a makeshift tourniquet, fastening it carefully around Ruby’s left bicep. “I’m not sure if that’ll be enough,” he says when he’s finished, looking grim. “We need to stop the infection from spreading."

As the skin over Ruby’s elbow turns dark and strange, Weiss and Blake look at each other, desperately trying to think of a way to save their friend. Ruby has always been the source of hope for their group, their inspiration, their light. Blake gasps in sudden realization.

“Ruby,” she says gently, tapping her friend’s cheek. “I need you to wake up for a second.” The other girl groans weakly, stirring slightly. “Please, it’s important.”

Finally, slowly, silver eyes begin to creep open. Ruby looks up at the three of them blearily. “Wha?” she mumbles, clearly still pretty out of it.

Blake’s not even sure if this is going to work, with Ruby so dazed and confused, but they have to give it a try. “Ruby, I know that it’s a lot to ask of you right now, but we need you to use your eyes. Please. It’s a matter of life and death.”

For a second, Ruby just closes her eyes and tilts her head, looking bewildered, and Blake braces herself to come up with another solution. But suddenly her eyes open again, and a flash of bright white light engulfs the room.

When the light fades, Blake ignores her stinging eyes and frantically goes to check on Ruby’s arm. She lets out a sigh of relief. The spreading blackness has stopped.

Weiss sighs heavily. “Good thinking Blake,” she says tiredly, turning to face Klein. “What should we do now?”

He crouches next to Ruby to examine her. “It looks like the infection has stopped, but I still don’t like the look of that arm.”

Blake agrees. It’s almost worse than when Yang lost her arm. At least then, her arm had just been gone. Ruby’s arm is still there, but from just above her elbow down the skin looks blackened, burnt. Parts of it almost look rotted away.

Weiss’ face twists in a mixture of disgust and sympathy. “Should we—”

“My best advice would be for her to lose the arm,” Klein says. “I don’t know exactly what caused this, but nothing good can come from leaving it attached like that.”

Blake and Weiss exchange a wordless glance, both of them swallowing hard. 

“Can we do this?” Weiss asks. Blake has never heard her voice sound so small.

“I don’t think we have a choice,” Blake replies, trying to sound more confident than she actually feels.

Carefully sitting down on the bed next to Ruby, Blake gently shakes her shoulder to get her to wake up. If they have to do this, she wants Ruby to at least have some idea of what’s going on. “Ruby,” she begins slowly. “We managed to stop whatever that is from spreading, but your arm—Klein thinks that we need to amputate it. Do you understand me?”

A pause, then Ruby’s head jerks in a tiny nod. “Ruby, I need to hear you say it.”

“I understand.”

The next hour and a half are the longest of Blake’s life. 

They don’t have to worry about another attack, since Weiss sent Penny out to patrol the perimeter, so instead they can put their entire focus on what they’ve about to do. Klein gives Ruby a mixture of painkillers and sedatives, and they move her to a couch that they’ve covered with towels. Still, it’s a messy, unpleasant process, and both of them are deeply relieved when it’s over.

When they finish, Weiss looks like she wants to throw up, but instead takes a deep breath to steel herself before summoning a fire glyph to cauterize the wound. “I’m sorry, Ruby,” she whispers to her unconscious friend. Once the bleeding stops, they wrap Ruby’s shoulder in bandages until the limb is basically unrecognizable.

Weiss sits back on her heels, looking exhausted. Her usually pristine outfit is covered in flecks of blood. She looks up at Blake sadly. She's never seen Weiss look so lost. 

“What do we do now?”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Please comment and leave kudos if you liked it.
> 
> I'm so sorry Ruby I don't know why I do stuff like this to you, I swear you're my favorite and I love you and I want you to be happy.
> 
> I might eventually write more for this if I ever get more ideas for it.
> 
> Happy new year!


End file.
